gIrvANAmRtabindu: garbhakavitva - Metre within a metre.
Poetry is of four kinds: Ashu, ba.ndha, garbha, and, citra.
Ashukavitva is of extemporaneous variety, the usual ones that
we find in Sanskrit texts. ba.ndhakavitva is one wherein the
poem is set to certain patterns, viz., nAgaba.ndha (cobra pattern),
churikAba.ndha (pattern of sword), cakraba.ndha (wheel pattern),
aSTadalakamalaba.ndha (eight-petalled lotus pattern), etc. I will
give examples for these at a later date. In fact, these patterns
would be nice to view on graphics. (If I send the pattern, can
anybody there in cyber-space put it on graphics? Sorry for the
trouble!) A poem is said to be of the type garbhakavitva if it
is set two different metres at the same time. citrakavitva is that
when the poem has certain tonal or syllabic peculiarities such as
the use of certain letters or syllables . Today is a holiday and I
have a little more time at my disposal. Sorry, you have to read a
longer posting. Let me dwell on garbhakavitva. This is the first
time I am using ITRANS. Pardon me if there are mistakes.
I am taking an example from `pArijAtapaharaNa' by na.ndi timmana.
na.ndi timmana lived in the sixteenth century in the court
of shrI kRshhNadevrAya of vijayanagara (ha.mpi) empire. The emperor,
known as mUrurAyaraga.NDa, encouraged literature in the three
languages: telugu, kannaDa and tamilzh. The poet is also known by
the name mukku (nose) timmana as he described the nose of satyabhAma
in a very beautiful manner! Even though he wrote in telugu, the poem
I am quoting is in Sanskrit. So it is appropriate for this column.
We learnt the other day that toTaka has four sa gaNAs in each line.
sragviNi (garlanded woman?) has four ra (212) gaNAs in each line.
bhuj.ngaprayAta (movement of the snake) has four ya (122) gaNAs in
each line. For both, the yati is at the seventh syllable.
sragviNi:
"vAsudevA ghanassvacchakA.ntI ramA
vAsa vaMshasvaravyaktavedakramA
rAsalAsyaprakArapravINodyamA
vAsavAdistutavyaktanAmA namaH"
Meanings for some words: ghana = cloud; svaccha = pure;
kA.nti = glow; ramAvAsa = the abode of rama (lakshhmi);
vaMsha = flute (literally bamboo); svara = sound;
vyakta = made known; vedakrama = vedAs; rAsalAsya = rAsa dance;
prakAra = mode; pravINa = expert; udyama = effort; vAsava = indra;
stuta = praised; nAma = name.
Syllabic pattern for the fourth line:
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2
vA sa vA di stu ta vya kta nA mA na maH
-------- --------- ---------- ---------
ra ra ra ra
Let us rewrite the same poem in a slightly different form:
"namaH vAsudevA ghanassvacchakA.ntI
ramAvAsa vaMshasvaravyaktaveda
kramA rAsalAsyaprakArapravINo
dyamA vAsavAdistutavyaktanAmA"
Abracadabra!
Now it becomes bhuja.ngaprayAta as it has four ya gaNas in each line!
Syllabic pattern for the first line:
1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2
na maH vA su de vA gha na ssva ccha kA .ntI
--------- -------- ----------- ------------
ya ya ya ya
Note that in telugu, additional constraints have to be observed.
prAsa (rhyming scheme for the second syllable of each line:
sa for sragviNi and ma for bhuja.ngaprayAta) also has to be obeyed
for both the metres. Observe also the yatIs. In the sragviNi
metre, the yatis for the four lines are as follows:
vA in vAsu with sva in svaccha; vA in vAsa with vya in vyakta;
rA in rAsa with ra in prakAra; vA in vAsavA with vya in vyakta.
In the bhuja.ngaprayAta metre, the yatIs in the four lines are:
na in namaH with gha in ghana; ra in ramA with sva in svara;
kra in kramA with pra in prakAra; dya in dyamA with stu in stuta.
If you observe carefully, there is a syllabic relationship in the
yati; the first letter and the yati letter are the same or they
belong to the same family or varga, etc. This strict relationship
is present only in telugu. In Sanskrit, yati is only a pause.
The voice rests on the previous syllable and we have a break thus
enabling easy understanding of the poem. No rhyme or syllabic
relationship exists for yati, nor there is prAsa.
"O Krishna! glowing like a clear cloud, you are the abode of Lakshmi;
The notes emanating from your flute are like the poetry of vedAs;
You are extremely skillful in the dance of rAsa;
Your name is chanted by gods like Indra; my salutations to you!"
Now let us have some fun. I rewrote the poem in a circular form
(to be read in a clockwise fashion). For sragviNi, the lines
start at letters marked with 1, 2, 3, and, 4. For bhuj.ngaprayAta,
they start at 5, 6, 7, and, 8. I have rearranged the poem in
this way to emphasise that a frame shift by two syllables changes
the metrical pattern. Biologists who are familiar with DNA will
immediately see the relationship between this and the frameshifts
encountered in protein coding. In fact, in the case of DNA and RNA,
we have four unique bases (A, C, G, T or U) and there are sixty-four
unique ways of combing them taking three at a time. These are called
codons. Syllables are of two types only: long (dIrgha or guru)
and short (hrasva or laghu). So we have eight and only eight ways
of forming three-syllable gaNAs. Suppose we give two more
characteristics, say, simple or compound form of the letters in
the syllable. In that case, we too will have sixty-four gaNAs!
Of course, this is only hypothetical.

na ma@h

vA su

dE vA

gha na

ssva ccha

kAM tI

nA mA

ra mA

vya kta

vA sa

stu ta

vaM Sa

vA di

sva ra

vA sa

vya kta

dya mA

vE dA

NO vI

pra ra

kA pra

sya lA

sa rA

mA kra

The above has to be read in the clockwise direction (only the bottom line
syllables have to be read right to left). The sragviNi lines begin
with the blue words and the bhujaMga prayAta lines begin with red words.
na ssva
vA gha ccha kA.n
su de tI ra 6
1 vA mA
maH vA 2
5 na sa
mA vaM
nA sha
kta sva
vya 1,2,3,4 sragviNi ra
ta 5,6,7,8 bhujangaprayAta vya
stu kta
di ve
vA da
sa kra 7
4 vA mA
mA rA 3
8 dya No lA sa
vI pra pra sya
ra kA
The above version has to be read clockwise.
Thus this posting has been an ambitious one on my part. I tried
to achieve four goals: (1,2) to decribe the characteristics of two
metres, viz., sragviNi and bhujangaprayAta; (3) to explain the
features of garbha kavitva (kangaroo poetry or metre within a metre);
(4) to bring out some parallels between this and the DNA coding.
I hope I was at least partly successful in conveying my excitement
about the mathematical relationships in poetry to you all.
Om shAntiH. Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao